The England Wales Cricket Board is anxiously waiting to see who Australia selects for its One-Day International Series against Zimbabwe. It could mean that the Hundred will lose David Warner, Mitchell Starc, and Steve Smith for the second half of the new English Cricket Tournament.

All three of the players, along with Aaron Finch, the ODI Captain for Australia, were picked up by teams in 2019’s draft system for top-level deals worth £125 000 on the understanding that they would be available for the whole inaugural season set to start on the 17th of July.

But Cricket Australia has seen fit to let its contracted players know that anyone who’s been selected for a three-match home series against the Zimbabweans must attend a Brisbane training camp. The date for the three matches has yet to be confirmed, but the training camp begins on the 4th of August, so Finch, Smith, Starc, and Warner will have to leave the Hundred at the halfway point.

But there’s still hope that Finch, who plays for the Northern Superchargers, Smith and Starc, who both play for Welsh Fire, and Warner, who’s with Southern Brave, may be able to skip this low-profile series. Not least because it’s happening in a year which will see short-form cricket taking centre stage thanks to the Twenty20 World Cup being hosted on home soil in October and November.

But there are 10 Australians dotted around the eight teams, including big hitters like London Spirits’ Glenn Maxwell, Northern Superchargers’ Chris Lynn, and Trent Rockets’ D’Arcy Short, so disruption looks likely.

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